The Chicago Bears walloped the Carolina Panthers 36-10 on Sunday, moving to 3-2. It’s the first time they’ve been above .500 after five games since they had the same record in 2021.
Here are 10 thoughts on the Week 5 victory at Soldier Field.
1. The final piece of the blockbuster Bears-Panthers trade in March 2023 should be a very good draft pick.
The Bears own the Panthers’ second-round pick in 2025, and based on where Carolina sits now — at 1-4, one of seven teams with only one victory — the selection would be near the top of Round 2. I’d be surprised if it’s lower than No. 36, and it could be higher.
The Panthers are bad on offense and beaten up on defense, and injuries have hit them across the board. They lost four starters to injuries in this game: tight end Tommy Tremble (concussion), right tackle Taylor Moton (elbow), center Austin Corbett (biceps) and outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney (shoulder).
This is a team headed deeper into a rebuild with 2023 No. 1 pick Bryce Young on the sideline. Young replaced starting quarterback Andy Dalton in the fourth quarter, but it was in garbage time and coach Dave Canales reiterated afterward that Dalton will retain the job moving forward.
The Bears deserve credit for doing what good teams do. They got a bad team down and kept them down. After a bumpy start — Chuba Hubbard scored on a 38-yard run on the Panthers’ second possession to stake them to a 7-0 lead — it was all Bears the rest of the way. Caleb Williams completed 20 of 29 passes for 304 yards and two touchdowns to DJ Moore, and the offense rolled up 424 yards and averaged 6.1 per play, the fourth-highest figure in the Matt Eberflus era.
Free safety Kevin Byard intercepted Dalton and strong safety Jaquan Brisker and middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds forced fumbles for three takeaways that the offense turned into 16 points. Add a touchdown after a fourth-down stop by the defense, and those 23 points were about the difference in the game.
With sustained drives — the Bears had five possessions of seven plays or more — the defense was fresh, and that meant a consistent pass rush against Dalton (18 of 28 for 136 yards). The Bears had four sacks (three of Dalton and one of Young), and Dalton was rarely comfortable in the pocket with time to find targets downfield. To wit, he completed six of his first seven attempts for only 8 yards.
Add it all up and Bears players — who were given the day off Monday before the team departs for London in the evening — can feel good about checking all the boxes for what a good team should do against an inferior opponent.
The Bears wanted to open up the downfield passing game and did that with the two shots to Moore for scores and a 26-yard completion to tight end Cole Kmet along the sideline. They wanted to do a better job of protecting Williams and he was sacked only once. The offense wanted to start faster and scored a touchdown in the first quarter for the first time this season. The screen game was super productive.
Finally, the offense wanted to eliminate some of the presnap penalties that had bogged it down, especially early in games, and that was cleaned up.
“The guys operationally were better,” Eberflus said. “I know it didn’t start out exactly the way they wanted, but they did well. We wanted to get our receivers involved today and we did that. Cole’s been involved. We got (tight end Gerald Everett) involved. We got everybody involved in the passing game, so that’s really good to be able to distribute that, play point guard. Hard to defend. Defensively, we caused some takeaways in those critical moments.”
The Panthers, who were steamrolled in their first two games by the New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Chargers, were more competent in their next two games, beating the Las Vegas Raiders 36-22 on the road and losing 34-24 to the Cincinnati Bengals last week. But the Raiders and Bengals are scuffling on defense, to be kind, and Dalton and the Panthers weren’t prepared to tangle with a defense of the Bears’ caliber.
Defensive tackle Gervon Dexter notched his fourth sack, putting him tops among interior linemen entering the Monday night game between the Saints and Kansas City Chiefs. He had four of the defense’s 10 quarterback hits.
It was the first time the Bears scored five offensive touchdowns in a game since a 41-17 road victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Dec. 27, 2020, and the first time they scored 30 points in the first three quarters since that game.
“We’ve been taking steps every week,” Kmet said. “The defense continued to play really well. Our (special) teams units continue to play well. And then offensively we’ve just been growing. I thought that was one of the better games I’ve been a part of since being here, honestly. We ran the ball when we needed to really well.
“Caleb was really effective in the pass game with the wind, and I don’t think that should be looked over. It was a really tough day in the wind and he was able to get the ball through the air effectively. And that’s not an easy task, especially here. Just overall a really good football game for us.”
This doesn’t carry the same weight as, say, steamrolling an NFC North opponent — and more on how rugged the division is shaping up to be in a little bit — but the Bears had things to clean up and they did just that in putting away a struggling team at home with positives across the board.
General manager Ryan Poles has been a road warrior in the early portion of the season, personally scouting major college programs on Saturdays to get an early glimpse of draft prospects. He can feel confident the final piece from the 2023 trade — which provided the Panthers with the pick to add Young (4 for 7 for 58 yards) and brought Moore to the Bears along with the picks that turned into Williams, right tackle Darnell Wright, cornerback Tyrique Stevenson and punter Tory Taylor — will be a very good one. It might be a prime spot to grab an interior offensive lineman.
2. Caleb Williams got a good introduction to some of the wind hazards that come with playing at Soldier Field.
While it was officially listed at only 7 mph at kickoff, the wind was swirling throughout the stadium, and that made it difficult at times to know which direction it was blowing — and how hard.
“The wind today was weird,” Williams said. “Because at certain times it was blowing that way, but the opposite side was (the other) way. So when we had TV timeouts or anything like that, I would spray the water bottle to figure out how aggressive the wind was.”
Williams said the wind affected his first throw, a speed out to Keenan Allen toward the Carolina sideline. I’d bet Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn would love that play back as it could have been a pick-six.
“Keenan did a good job kind of getting his hand in the way and batting it down because it ended up being behind him,” Williams said. “It was different, cutting through the wind. I don’t think I’ve had too many issues of dealing with that, but it was definitely a factor of understanding the wind.”
It’s a lesson, like many he has encountered to this point, that he learned quickly, and from there things took off. Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron cooked up a really nice call on second-and-6 from the Panthers 34-yard line on the second series. Allen and Rome Odunze, lined up to the right of the formation, ran post routes. Moore came in behind the clear-out from the opposite side on an over route and was wide open in a confused Carolina secondary for an easy touchdown to tie the score at 7-7.
With 30 seconds remaining until halftime, Williams was able to move safety Xavier Woods to his right, leaving Moore on the back side of the formation one-on-one with cornerback Mike Jackson for a perfect 30-yard touchdown pass. Add a 26-yard sideline shot to Cole Kmet and some well-executed screen passes, and it was a big game. Williams’ 126.2 passer rating was the best by a Bears rookie quarterback since at least 1970, ahead of the 121.1 Jim McMahon posted on the road against the Los Angeles Rams on Dec. 26, 1982.
Williams played turnover-free, was slippery in the pocket on a handful of occasions to create more time, ran for 34 yards on five carries and unlocked the downfield element that has been such a talking point in recent weeks for an offense that had lacked explosive plays.
“The most important thing is understanding — I’ve talked about it multiple times — what the team needs and taking what the defense gives you,” Williams said. “Today we did that. We did a tremendous job when we needed the big runs, when we needed the screens, when we needed the explosive plays, whether it was after turnovers or three-and-outs or the defense holding them to this and that and us getting back on the offense and playing well together.
“That’s definitely how we want to play. Definitely what we envisioned as an offense and as a team. We’ve got to keep doing it.”
The Bears never have had a quarterback prospect as hyped as Williams, and the focus and pressure on him is intense. He has proved, to this point, to be able to compartmentalize all aspects of the job and grow. He has posted a passer rating above 100 in consecutive games, and while it won’t be linear improvement each week, what you’re seeing is legitimate growth as everyone involved — Waldron, the offensive staff, the offensive line and the skill-position players — settle in with one another.
With 1,091 passing yards, Williams is already sixth on the list for Bears rookies, nearly halfway to the top mark of 2,193 that Mitch Trubisky established in 2017. Barring something totally unexpected, Williams could have all of the team’s significant rookie passing records before the Thanksgiving game in Detroit on Nov. 28.
“He’s just a really quick learner,” Kmet said. “It’s not easy, especially at this level. It shows his willingness to get better each and every week. Obviously he has the talent to be one of the best in the league, but he’s done a good job of being patient with himself in a certain regard — but also having that fire where he feels the heat a little bit, where he knows he needs to get better at certain things.
“There were things today that collectively we all can be better at, but his command of the offense has just grown each and every week, even a lot faster than I anticipated.”
Panthers coach Dave Canales is trying to figure out what to do with Bryce Young, whom he inherited when he took the job this season, and probably could see a huge difference between the last two No. 1 picks.
“(Williams) did a fantastic job extending plays,” said Canales, who worked on Pete Carroll’s staff in Seattle with Waldron. “We had him dead to rights a couple times. He wiggled out of great rushes, great pressure on him. We had things covered and he extended the play and found completions. He played efficiently.
“I know a lot of those guys on that staff. I see this team continuing to improve weekly and they came out and played hard again and gave us a great challenge, and we were not up to the challenge today. I’ve got to tip my cap to the Bears and that staff for just continuing to push forward and really get to the heart and soul of their core, their scheme, and just the way they play hard.”
Maybe Williams learned a trick or two about handling the wind at Soldier Field, too, something that might come in handy later in the season.
3. We can officially put to rest the social media concern about a disconnect between DJ Moore and Caleb Williams.
The lack of a downfield passing attack and Moore’s interaction — or lack thereof — with teammates on the sideline no longer will be the rage. Moore got rolling with five receptions for a season-high 105 yards and two touchdowns.
It’s not like Williams hadn’t been looking Moore’s way in the first four games. It’s just that the offense hadn’t successfully taken shots downfield to him.
“It’s amazing,” Moore said. “What is this? Week 5? It took five weeks to get the downfield passing game going. But when it hits, it hits. And it was good today.”
Here’s the deal: Elite wide receivers want the football. Moore is no different, and he’s far from a diva like a lot of the super-talented pass catchers for other teams. That’s one reason Ryan Poles was comfortable signing Moore, who still had two years remaining on his contract, to a four-year, $110 million extension that would keep him in place through 2029 if he completes the deal. The Bears like Moore because he’s uber-talented, he’s a good presence in the locker room and he doesn’t create more waves when the seas are rocky like they were last season.
Moore knew he could have gotten more opportunities downfield in the first month, but he kept going about his business and those chances came against the Panthers.
“Just us getting comfortable, us seeing what we can do, what type of pass you can throw to him,” Williams said. “He made a couple awesome catches this week in practices. Just building confidence and trust between each other and trusting this offense between everybody.”
The second touchdown to Moore was perfectly executed at the line of scrimmage before the snap. Keenan Allen was on the right side of the formation running up the numbers to the end zone, and Cole Kmet was running a route into the flat.
Williams started looking right at the snap, and that moved safety Xavier Woods over. Moore was singled up on the back side with cornerback Mike Jackson. Forget 50-50 ball. That was a 90-10 matchup.
“I’ve been wanting one of those,” Williams said. “DJ is such a special player and you all saw it today. Let him just be DJ and be special. It felt really good. We were super excited. We get to the sideline and we were both like, ‘Finally, we were able to hit something like that.’
“The coverage pushed over when I made the check to the right side. DJ did a good job keeping it skinny, getting on (Jackson’s) toes and then keeping it skinny. I saw the safety (Woods) push over right before the snap. DJ obviously did a great job and made a great catch.”
Last season Moore had five receptions for 58 yards in a 16-13 win over the Panthers, his former team.
“It was just another game, but I mean, it’s the Panthers, so you can add whatever you want onto it, revenge game, anything like that,” he said. “It was really just a special game today to get us all going on the offense.”
Maybe now there won’t be so much concern if Moore is seated by himself on the sideline.
4. There was a huge void in the middle of the Carolina defense with linebackers Shaq Thompson and Josey Jewell sidelined.
The Bears took advantage by keeping the foot on the pedal with a no-huddle attack.
There are a variety of reasons for an offense to go without a huddle, the most obvious being a two-minute attack when time is of the essence. Sometimes it can be because the offense has a personnel advantage it wants to exploit without giving the defense the opportunity to substitute.
This decision to play with tempo was all about putting more pressure on replacement linebackers Trevin Wallace, a rookie third-round pick from Kentucky, and Claudin Cherelus, an undrafted player from Alcorn State last season who was claimed off waivers from the New York Jets.
According to the gamebook, 25 of the Bears’ 69 plays were from no-huddle, including 18 of 40 in the first half. While the Panthers might not have been scrambling, the goal was to complicate matters for defensive communication.
“We were up-tempo at times, really creative by Shane (Waldron),” Matt Eberflus said. “Not necessarily snapping it fast but being on the ball, idling the defense. They obviously had some injuries over there at the linebacker position, so it’s very hard to communicate when you have young people over there, new people, so I thought that was good tactically by Shane.”
The key was the Bears were productive with those plays. Not huddling is a great way to tire your skill-position players and put your defensive players back on the field in a hurry if things don’t go well. The offense was moving the chains though.
“We were really comfortable,” center Coleman Shelton said. “We were getting up on the ball and Caleb did a great job communicating the plays and everything at the line of scrimmage. We just wanted to get some tempo and feel like we’re in really good shape as an offense. Let’s just get up on the ball and run a play. Let’s get up on the ball and run another play. That felt great.”
I don’t know how Panthers coaches will evaluate Wallace. He finished with a game-high 15 tackles (10 solos) and Cherelus had six stops, but Carolina couldn’t get the momentum-stopping plays needed to force the Bears into a different strategy.
5. Bears GM Ryan Poles was drawn to Roschon Johnson for many of the same reasons former running backs coach Stan Drayton calls Johnson one of his favorite players he has worked with.
Remember, Poles said he was shocked when Johnson was available in the fourth round with the No. 115 selection a year ago. He detailed how the team ran 53 simulations leading into the draft, and in none of them was Johnson still on the board.
Johnson has settled into a role as the goal-line and short-yardage back, scoring twice on 1-yard runs to give him three touchdowns for the season. He finished with 25 yards on 10 carries and for the season has 81 yards on 25 carries plus four receptions for 32 yards. As long as he’s primarily in short-yardage situations, there probably won’t be a lot of options for him to run routes, but it’s something the team believes he can do.
“Whenever my opportunities come, if the carries are at the goal line or wherever, I’m happy,” Johnson said.
Drayton, now the head coach at Temple, was the running backs coach at Texas when Johnson joined the Longhorns as a freshman quarterback in 2019. In no time at all — a week before the start of the season — Texas’ running backs depth chart had been obliterated by injuries.
“I realized he wasn’t going to play (quarterback), so I went to Coach (Tom) Herman and said, ‘I will take him at running back right now,'” Drayton said. “It made no sense for him to be on the sideline with that same toughness you are seeing now, that same professional approach to everything he does. He just needed to play. I told Coach Herman, ‘Give him to me.’ It was a good fit.”
You don’t just take a freshman four-star recruit — Johnson passed for 2,343 yards and 24 touchdowns and rushed for another 1,623 yards and 26 scores as a senior at Port Neches-Groves High School in Texas in 2018 — and uproot him from that position overnight. But the buy-in from Johnson happened quickly.
“We planted the seed,” Drayton said. “And the thing about that kid, if he can help the team win anywhere on the field, he was willing to do it. Obviously had to talk to his parents to sell them on it. That’s the one thing about being a quarterback parent, that’s a different deal. They tick differently, you know what I am saying?
“The dad is like: ‘I don’t know if my kid can play running back. He’s tall. He’s long.’ I said: ‘He can and I will help him with that piece. You just have to trust me along the way.’ Roschon didn’t have much hesitation. It took me about a 10-minute conversation to talk to him about the value he was going to add to the team and how I was going to protect him and give him an idea of what the process was going to be like. He bought in immediately.”
Because of his quarterback background and an understanding of the playbook, Johnson was able to get on the field quickly and wound up rushing for 649 yards, third on the team, and seven touchdowns as a freshman.
“When people don’t know, they play slow, they hesitate,” Drayton said. “That part of it we were already ahead of schedule. It was body control and teaching him how to protect himself on contact and how to deal with contact. It took me a little time to get the pad level where it needed to be. Took me some time getting him to fit some of the run schemes. He was a quick study.”
The arrival of Bijan Robinson the next season and the presence of Keaontay Ingram, a sixth-round pick by the Arizona Cardinals in 2022 who’s now with the Chiefs, prevented Johnson from being the lead ball carrier. A lot of other players would have bailed.
“If it wasn’t Roschon, it probably would have been a transfer situation,” Drayton said. “Roschon made a commitment to Texas and that is the kind of kid he is. He was going to fight it out and provide value for Texas. Now, in that first year when he moved to running back, do you have the option to move back to QB? Once he got in a groove, there was no turning back.
“That kid is different. He was just professional about his business from Day 1. He may be better as a person. Never doubted himself. That was consistent every single day. Just a great example of what it means to be an unselfish player in a day and age where you don’t see that stuff anymore.”
As Johnson settled in, Drayton wanted to help him with some of the nuances taller backs — Johnson is 6-0 1/4, 225 pounds — need to navigate the running back world. That meant watching film of former Bears running back Matt Forte (6-2, 218), whom Drayton coached in 2015, and players such as former Houston Texans running back Arian Foster (6-1, 227).
“Matt had a lot of contact surface,” Drayton said. “He reminded me a lot of Matt that way. Now, Matt had phenomenal hands out of the backfield. Roschon does as well. But Matt had a different level of route-running ability. As far as the running style and the way I needed to create a visual for him of what his running style needed to become, we watched Matt and those bigger backs.”
After 3 weeks of struggles, D’Andre Swift and the Chicago Bears run game break free
When the Bears drafted Johnson, Drayton connected him with Forte, who is No. 2 on the Bears’ all-time rushing list with 8,602 yards.
“He dropped a lot of knowledge for me,” Johnson said. “I tried to be a sponge. He’s definitely someone that has been a resource to me.”
One thing the Bears liked about Johnson when they got him last year was they were adding a running back who hadn’t been beaten up in college with a heavy workload. Johnson has fresh legs for a pro in Year 2, and now that he’s over the toe injury that sidelined him during portions of training camp and preseason, the belief is he’ll begin to showcase more of the well-rounded ability that drew Poles and the team to him.
All because the Longhorns had an emergency need and a former Bears running backs coach saw a solution elsewhere on the roster.
“Quite frankly, (Drayton) is the reason I am even playing the position,” Johnson said.
6. The Bears have some real home cooking going right now for Matt Eberflus.
We don’t have Lovie Smith around to talk about the “fourth phase,” which was how he referred to the advantage fans provide at Soldier Field.
Sunday’s victory was the team’s eighth in a row at home, the longest active streak in the league, and it evened Eberflus’ record at Soldier Field to 10-10. The last time the Bears lost in front of their home crowd was in Week 6 last year, when Justin Fields was knocked out of the game in the third quarter with a thumb injury and the Minnesota Vikings prevailed 19-13.
It’s the longest home winning streak since Smith’s teams rolled off 10 consecutive victories at Soldier Field spanning the 2005 and 2006 seasons. You have to go back to 1988-89 to find a nine-game home winning streak. Mike Ditka’s teams had 12 consecutive home wins from the start of the 1985 season through the first four in 1986. That’s it in the Super Bowl era for home winning streaks of at least eight games. The franchise record is 17 from 1932-35.
The next game at Soldier Field isn’t until Week 10, when the New England Patriots visit on Nov. 10. That’s the first of three consecutive home games with visits from the Green Bay Packers and Vikings following. The Packers and Vikings likely will present a greater challenge than many of the teams the Bears knocked off in this streak.
- 30-12 over Raiders, Oct. 22, 2023
- 16-13 over Panthers, Nov. 9, 2023
- 28-13 over Detroit Lions, Dec. 10, 2023
- 27-16 over Cardinals, Dec. 24, 2023
- 37-17 over Atlanta Falcons, Dec. 31, 2023
- 24-17 over Tennessee Titans, Sept. 8, 2024
- 24-18 over Rams, Sept. 29, 2024
- 36-10 over Panthers, Oct. 6, 2024
The Lions (12-5) are the only team on the list that finished with a winning record last season. The Titans, Rams and Panthers are a combined 3-11 this season. The combined winning percentage of all the teams is .364 (36-63). But, hey, you can only play the team on the other sideline — it’s not like the Bears were able to select their opponents.
With the exception of Matthew Stafford last week for the Rams (and he was missing his top wide receivers) and Jared Goff with the Lions last season, it has been a parade of mediocre quarterbacks: Andy Dalton, Bryce Young, Will Levis, Taylor Heinicke, Desmond Ridder, Kyler Murray, Brian Hoyer and Aidan O’Connell.
Chicago Bears 2024 schedule: Here’s who they’ll play — and our predictions for each game
The defense has feasted on these quarterbacks, who have combined to complete 166 of 285 passes for 1,505 yards with six touchdowns, 13 interceptions and 22 sacks for a 60.6 passer rating.
With Carolina scoring only 10 points, it’s the fifth time in the Super Bowl era the Bears have limited their opponent to 21 points or fewer in 11 consecutive games. They’re 7-4 in this stretch. The best streak is 16 games beginning in Week 2 of 1993 and carrying through the 1994 opener. Remarkably, Dave Wannstedt’s teams were 8-8 in those games.
In a completely different era, starting with the first game in franchise history on Oct. 3, 1920 — a 20-0 victory over the Moline Universal Tractors (yes, you read that correctly) — the Bears played 98 consecutive games without an opponent scoring 22 or more points. The Tractors, an independent team, played only seven games in their existence, two considered to be NFL games.
The streak was broken on Nov. 8, 1927, in a 26-6 loss to the New York Yankees (yes, you read that correctly), just two days after a 0-0 tie against the Providence Steam Roller. Yes, those were very different times in professional football.
But in current times, the Bears are playing quite well with the assistance of the fourth phase, and they should be a solid favorite when the Patriots (1-4) come to Soldier Field next month. The offense is coming around and a more well-rounded team has a chance to come together before some of the tougher teams on the schedule visit the lakefront.
7. As the Bears search for more pass-rush options — and they’re always looking to add in this area — it was good to see rookie fifth-round pick Austin Booker notch his first sack.
Booker got some run late in the game when the Bears pulled their starters and he brought down Bryce Young. The Panthers had fourth-and-2 at the Bears 8-yard line and Booker got left tackle Ikem Ekwonu moving backward. He used his long left arm to shove Ekwonu back and off balance, clearing an opening to the inside to close on Young.
“It would have felt better if it was at a meaningful moment,” Booker said.
Hey, his first sack had to come sometime, and it’s great for Booker to get that behind him as he works to carve out playing time in the rotation behind Montez Sweat, Darrell Taylor and DeMarcus Walker.
Booker burst onto the scene in the preseason with 2½ sacks and a flurry of nice rushes against tackles who are not starting in the league. He was effectively knocked down a spot on the depth chart, however, when the team traded at the roster cutdown deadline with the Seattle Seahawks to acquire Taylor, a more experienced edge rusher.
The move made sense. The Bears were seeking another veteran and the price was cheap — a sixth-round pick in 2025. But it made it more difficult for Booker to get on the field. I asked Booker if it has been harder to get rolling against better offensive linemen in the regular season.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “With the amount of plays I was getting (in the preseason), it’s way easier to get in your groove. I feel that’s more what it’s about, getting a feel for the game — individual games. I feel like it’s all about the number of snaps. That’s why we keep our best guys in there so much. They get hot and you want to keep them in there.”
Booker played only 48 snaps through the first four games. He said concerns about his ability to set the edge are overblown by one play — Tony Pollard’s 26-yard touchdown run for the Titans in the opener.
“Other than that, it hasn’t been a problem for me,” he said. “If you watch the tape from today, it was pretty good as well.”
Booker made a nice play last week against the Rams, coming from the far side of the formation to put a big hit on Colby Parkinson on a tight end screen.
It’s worth wondering when the Bears will start the 21-day window for defensive end Jacob Martin to return to practice from injured reserve. Martin has been rehabilitating from a toe injury suffered in July during training camp and should be an option in the weeks ahead. It stands to reason the Bears will likely wait until after the bye — which follows Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London — to make any return-to-practice moves.
It makes no sense to start the clock for Martin or offensive linemen Ryan Bates and Larry Borom with a bye coming. But Martin — and the linemen — could at least be practicing before the Oct. 27 road game against the Washington Commanders.
So with Martin as another experienced option, there’s always pressure to produce.
“The pass rush has been great and that’s why we’re keeping those guys in,” Booker said. “I am just waiting for my turn to get hot.”
8. Can you imagine an offseason in which you don’t hear about how sharp a team looks in OTAs or which players have been in attendance and who is missing? Players can.
NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell visited Halas Hall on Thursday, the 17th team facility he has toured since being hired in June 2023 as the successor to DeMaurice Smith. The league’s current collective bargaining agreement with the players runs through the 2030 season, but there are always issues for discussion between the sides.
One that came on the radar this summer was the idea of overhauling the offseason schedule as we know it — a voluntary nine-week program typically begins in mid-April — to give players a much longer break after the season ends.
The current schedule, which is collectively bargained, has three phases: meetings, individual drills on the field and organized team activities. A mandatory minicamp is permitted during the OTA stage. The offseason program generally stretches into early or mid-June, depending on each team’s specific schedule, before a roughly six-week break in advance of training camp.
When I asked tight end Cole Kmet what he thought the big talking point would be when players met with Howell after practice Thursday, this is what he singled out.
“The main thing is the offseason program and getting that adjusted,” Kmet said. “Trying to make it so we can report just once. I think it makes no sense how we report in April and then we take a six-week break and then pick it back up in July. No science would tell you that makes sense training-wise. That’s the big push amongst a lot of players, but right now the CBA is the CBA and we’ll see what happens with it.”
The league and players association would have to agree to any changes to the current CBA. The group that likely would push back the most against a shift would be the coaches, who don’t have a seat at the negotiating table.
“There have been mock-up schedules I have seen where you either report in late June or you report in July, and those are still the optional things up until (about) July 22 when it’s mandatory camp,” Kmet said. “That way guys that have bonuses attached to offseason workouts can still earn those, but guys that don’t want to show up still have that option to wait until July 22.
“I know the coaches like to have time with the players. Nothing you do in April is retained to what you do in (training) camp. And everyone makes the biggest deal about who was there, who missed. You’ve got Jaylon (Johnson). He hasn’t shown up (for the voluntary offseason program) and he was (second-team) All-Pro last season. If you’re a quarterback it helps you learn the offense, but a wide receiver like Keenan Allen, he’s seen five, six different offenses. He knows how to run routes. He doesn’t need to be here for that and he wasn’t.
“I think it’s a little overrated, the offseason, and I wish it just flowed all together. It doesn’t right now. I’m here. I’ll do it. Then I take a couple weeks off and then I pick the training back up. I’d rather just have it flow right into the season. That would be the big thing.”
Howell emphasized the possibility that one ramp-up period could reduce some of the injuries that occur during training camp. He also floated the idea that in the early stages of a new schedule, players would have weekends off. In the current setup, teams typically have players at the facility during the voluntary portion for a maximum of four days, and minicamps were moved away from weekends several years ago.
“The science says that if you have a longer period of recovery, followed by a steady buildup into the season, you will reduce the injury rate,” Howell said Thursday. “Our scientists say that and the league scientists say that. So then you get into the details of, well, what are those periods of time like? How long should the offseason be? How long should the ramp-up be?”
It’s an interesting topic and something the owners and players can wrangle over that doesn’t involve money. Again, the coaches place a huge premium on the time they have to work with players in the offseason, but their voice probably won’t get a lot of space in these discussions.
9. It looks like Nate Davis has dropped a spot on the offensive line.
Daivs, a free-agent signee in 2023, was not the first player off the bench when Teven Jenkins was sidelined with a new injury. Bill Murray got his first action as an offensive lineman since entering the NFL in 2020 as an undrafted defensive lineman with the Patriots.
Jenkins, who was questionable for the game with what Matt Eberflus said was a bruised rib, left during the final possession of the second quarter with an ankle injury. If there’s good news, Jenkins wasn’t in a walking boot and didn’t appear to be in rough shape when he left the locker room after the game.
What’s noteworthy, beyond another new ailment for Jenkins, is that Murray apparently moved up the depth chart in the eyes of the coaching staff. It was noteworthy when Eberflus — unprompted — praised Murray during training camp, and this is proof he has continued to climb on the practice field.
“Just nice having coaches and all the guys believe in you,” Murray said, “knowing that you practice your butt off and did everything you can to put yourself in the best situation possible, and anything to help the team win is the goal.”
The Patriots converted Murray to guard during training camp in 2023, and the Bears signed him to their practice squad after watching him learn the new position in the preseason.
Murray was right in the middle of the action when Caleb Williams was hit out of bounds on a play that should have drawn a penalty and was in a fracas after Roschon Johnson’s 1-yard touchdown run that led to ejections for Bears guard Matt Pryor and Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn.
“I don’t want anyone hitting our quarterback,” Murray said of the hit by Carolina safety Nick Scott as Williams was in the air across the sideline boundary. “Just said, ‘Lay off our quarterback.’ Nothing too much. Anything to disincentivize them hitting him. That’s about it.
“At the end of the day, you want to protect our quarterback whatever that may entail.”
And the dust-up in the end zone, precipitated by a Murray-Horn exchange?
“I didn’t say anything,” Murray said. “Didn’t have anything to say. It was goal line. I made my block. Very excited. (Horn) started talking to me and I just kind of stared. Should have celebrated with my teammates. That’s on me. Didn’t say anything.”
How things shake out on the line in the week ahead is worth monitoring. Murray could be an option to remain in the lineup if the Bears want to give Jenkins two weeks (including the bye) to heal up.
“Did a really nice job stepping in there from what I saw,” Eberflus said of Murray. “I’ve got to look at the tape, but it looked like he was physical, he was sound in there in terms of fundamentals.”
10. There’s not a better division in football right now than the NFC North.
I said back in the spring that the division would be one of the best in the league, and it’s a slam dunk at this point. It’s the only one in the NFL that doesn’t have a team with a losing record.
- Vikings 5-0
- Lions 3-1
- Bears 3-2
- Packers 3-2
Is there a handful of teams out there better than Minnesota right now? Sure. On a neutral field, there are definitely some teams I would pick to beat the Vikings. But the NFC North is cooking.
“There isn’t one that is playing as well as ours right now,” defensive end Montez Sweat said. “I can say that. Top to bottom, nah, there’s not one better. We’ve got a pretty good division for sure.”
The Bears won’t get into division play until Week 11, when the Packers come to Soldier Field on Nov. 17.
“We get better week by week, and then when our division games come up, let’s go,” defensive tackle Andrew Billings said, snapping his fingers. “By that time, we will have seen a lot of football, a lot of different schemes. It’s going to be great for us.”
10a. Matt Eberflus said the decision to fly to London overnight Monday is to be best acclimated to the six-hour time difference before Sunday’s game against the Jaguars. When the Bears previously played in London, they left later in the week and practiced only once when there. This week they will have a walk-through Wednesday, practice Thursday and Friday and another walk-through Saturday.
“Just to get over there and get our clocks right,” Eberflus said. “That’s the science part of it. I went to Italy this summer and I’ll tell you, it takes you a couple days to get there. I’m all in for that. But, yeah, that’s all that was, the science of it.
“We’re going to go there Tuesday morning. The players have the day off that day, which is normal. Then we’ll bring them back in on Wednesday and we’ll have a walk-through practice to get their bodies ready to go. From there we’ll be normal business operations.”
10b. After DeAndre Carter took a big hit in the middle of the field that aggravated his rib injury, Josh Blackwell replaced him on punt and kickoff returns. Blackwell had a 22-yard kickoff return, his first. While he dabbled as a punt returner at Duke and in high school, he never had returned kickoffs.
10c. The Bears have 11 takeaways through five games, their most since totaling 14 in a 3-2 start to the 2018 season.
10d. If you’re traveling to London this week and looking for something to do Saturday night, you might want to consider an amiable group of European Bears fans that will be meeting at 7 p.m. local time at The Famous Three Kings (171 North End Road, London). Lots of college football games on television. I met up with this group the night before the Bears played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Wembley Stadium in 2011 and it was a good time. Super knowledgeable fans and I know they are excited to have a chance to see the team in London again.
10e. The NFL Network crew of Rich Eisen, Kurt Warner, Stacey Dales and Steve Wyche will call the Bears-Jaguars game from Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
10f. The Bears opened as 1½-point favorites over the Jaguars at Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas.
